Journey of a Lost on-line Sale


Have you ever really considered just how tough it is to make a sale on-line?

At how many points that would be sale can fall by the wayside.

Most of them nothing to do with your work, but with the marketing process itself. 

If you think you can make a living by simply selling on-line take a look at this info-graphic of the journey that an on-line mail out to your EXISTING customers has to take. The survival of your sale is just about as precarious  as the fate of a sperm looking for an egg. chart of sale   Depressing isn’t it?

You see how your sale is endangered even when it has been added to the basket and goes on being vulnerable even to the point the buyer unpacks it at home.

But you can take action, lots of the right hand downfalls can be addressed.

It’s never going to be water tight but you can make it a much less leaky journey.

For example , think hard about your postage cost, consider absorbing some in the price ( by increasing it NOT by loosing margin). Also make postage costs clear upfront in the description, nobody wants to find them out mid buying process.

Tighten the process instead of winding and bitty newsletters , go for a hard-hitting punch mail with one call to action.

My latest piece here ( link straight through to product in your on-line shop, opened and ready to buy) If that is too brutal for you and you want to send customers to your web home page, then make sure it isn’t a spaghetti junction of options, so the chance of their taking the right route is one in a million. The buying link has to dominate that page.

The less actions required to get to the sale the more likely you are to make it.So get those clicks down.

  You can find help on some of those right hand issues by reading these posts:

Prices: Pricing for Failure 

Good web home page ( but consider linking directly to your shop) : Botox your Home Page

Shockingly I can find no post on how to do decent product descriptions although I feel as if I never stop writing about it, so that’s my next task

2 thoughts on “Journey of a Lost on-line Sale

  1. Judith says:

    As a buyer I think you are so right here. How many times, even for larger web sites, I find I have to search around for sizes, dimensions , actual numbers of things, then try and peer at pictures that never seem to show the view I want, and well colours…. They can be very wrong. Frequently you have to search for delivery costs and yes they need to be clearly visible. The most appealing to make an order is the not too high limit to get free delivery! The one point buyers have often to rely on are good reviews or helpful answers to questions so really it is as ever in life, communicate! Thanks for the thoughtful post.

    • Dixie Nichols says:

      You’ve said it in a nutshell COMMUNICATE don’t market.
      Simply tell people what they want to know forget all the persuasion stuff. If they like it, can afford it, and have a place to put it, or can wear it, they will buy.

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